Abstract
TO the Fortnightly Review for March Miss L. Gardiner contributes, under the title, “The Fight for the Birds,” a timely article apropos of Mr. Hobhouse's Plumage Bill now down for second reading. She gives a history of the rise and progress of the contest against the slaughter and extermination of so many of the most useful and ornate birds of the world for the plumassier trade, which has never been more in evidence than in the past season or two, during which women have “so gaily worn the brand of Cain in the street.” Miss Gardiner quotes statistics from brokers' catalogues, mainly of 1911, 1912, 1913, which show that, besides others, 132,000 “ospreys” were killed, 8700 birds of paradise, 22,000 crowned pigeons, 24,000 humming-birds, 23,000 terns, 162,000 kingfishers, 1200 emeus, and 4500 condors. It is significant that, as the author remarks, “reports on the quantities now sold are no longer published in the Public Ledger since the House of Lords inquiry.”
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The Importation of Birds' Plumage . Nature 93, 41 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/093041a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/093041a0